Friday, April 08, 2005

The Crazy Hammer

My apologies for no update yesterday, but Comcast's broadband network was out of commission for several hours.

Now, I'm not a psychologist or psychiatrist, so what follows will include my opinion about a certain person. I may or may not be right (although I think I am on to something).

Many colorful people have spent time in elected office. Some are (or were) celebrities (Fred "Gopher" Grandy, former star of the TV show The Love Boat, served four terms in the House of Representatives as a Republican from the state of Iowa); Fred Thompson, veteran character actor (that's him as the air traffic control boss in Die Hard II, among other films), served as a Republican senator for the state of Tennessee from 1994 to 2003. And, of course, Sonny Bono (of Sonny and Cher fame and writer of that classic song, "I've Got You Babe"), representing California as a Republican as part of the legendary class of 1994. Congress has had its infamous members, such as whack-job Robert Dornan of California.

Which brings us full-circle to Texas Rep. Tom DeLay, Republican, and House Majority Leader. If you hadn't heard of DeLay in the past, I'm sure you learned who he was, when he and Senator Bill Frist decided to involve the Congress in Terri Schiavo's case. When the case finally ended, DeLay offered up a sort of veiled threat against the judges involved in the case: "The time will come for the men responsible for this to answer for their behavior," he said following Schiavo's death. DeLay also said, "We will look at an arrogant, out-of-control, unaccountable judiciary that thumbed their nose at Congress and the president. Congress for many years has shirked its responsibility to hold the judiciary accountable. No longer."

Which is essentially a sort of temper-tantrum that a six-year-old might have when mommy takes away his favorite toy.

Meanwhile, DeLay has found himself at the center of an ethics controversy (which is chronicled in detail at MSNBC). In 2004, three of his aides were indicted on charges of illegally funneling corporate cash into Texas legislative races. Remember when Republicans investigating the many Clinton "scandals" stated that "where there's smoke, there's fire," meaning if people Bill Clinton knew were guilty of crimes, Bill Clinton must be guilty as well. Well, using that metaphor, I guess you can say that Tom DeLay is currently on fire.

And let's not forget that the House Ethics committee had already admonished DeLay for his actions in 2004, warning DeLay to "temper" his future actions to comply with House rules and standards of conduct.

Since most Republicans are hypocrites at their core, they're not very interested in any investigations into DeLay's ethics issues. They only become concerned about following the law when it applies to Democrats. In fact, House Republicans decided to change ethics rules to allow a person in a leadership position to remain in that position if indicted for certain crimes.

Stay tuned for more reports on Republican hypocrites who think the rule of law does not involve them or their actions.